Blogging relationships and the process of thinning

We have 80  different apple trees on our property.

They are a sight to behold when they are all laden with fruit….

These are pictures from 2009 and 2010:

Ginger gold

Red Delicious

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I was out in the orchard today checking on the 2012 crop.

Noticed they are about ready to go through their thinning process :

I took this picture this afternoon.

If you look really closely, there are larger apples as well as little tiny ones.

Just to give you an idea, the larger ones are about the size of a quarter…the smaller apples will drop off in the next week or two so that the tree will pour it’s energy into the apples that remain.

I’ve been blogging since 2007.

Hard to believe.

Noticed on my counter this morning there have been over 300,000 hits, whatever that means

During this time my wife and I have become friends with people literally from around the globe.

I’ve met 4 of you in person, in some cases more than once.

A handful of you are also friends on face book, so that has added another dimension to our interactions.

I have been very intentional from the very beginning to include my wife in all of my interactions on line.   We share the same e-mail address, same Face book account, etc.  Most of us have heard accounts of people running off with someone they “met” on line.  Unfortunately  that sort of thing happens in a broken world.

and I don’t want it to ever  happen to me….

If you think it could never happen to you, then the slide has already been greased.

Every so often, I will meet another blogger and really “click”…a genuine friendship will begins to form… (like an apple) but then one day, when I log on to visit their blog… poof..they are gone,  no notice..just gone….like those small apples that will fall off during thinning.

Even though I know it’s a natural and healthy process, it leaves  me a little sad….

That happened again this week.

Blogging friend dropped off the radar.

I was tempted to feel like Puff the Magic Dragon..

Remember the song?

the little boy sudden stops coming to visit…

Fortunately for me,

I am surrounded by several loving nurturing relationships…..both on-line as well as in person.

I thought about the apple tree  and its ability to only grow so many apples in a season…

There’s a reason for that.

Even those of us that tend to be more social than others can only maintain and invest in a limited number of relationships.

I used to think there was no limit to the number of friendships I could stay current with.

Not any more

Those of us that blog, blog for different reasons….

If you’re a blogger, why do you blog?

If you’re not a blogger but enjoy reading blog posts..what do you get out of it?

Is it possible to have genuine friendships with people and never meet them in person?

Do you have any friendships that started on line and matured into something significant in your life?

DM

The 2011 harvest is upon us

“The most important ingredient in the welfare of an orchard, is the sound of the Orchardist’s footsteps”

Below are some pictorial highlights of what’s been happening around here the past couple of weeks….

Yours truly picking the Ginger Gold’s

I use that little level to double check to make sure the apples are not sticking above the rim of the box.

When I put the crates in the cooler I like to stack them at least 3 crates high.  There are between 40 to 50 pounds of apples in a crate.  A bushel of apples weighs 42 pounds.

Long Island Cheese Heirloom pumpkins that were picked this weekend

Brandy-wine Heirloom Tomatoes. 

I lifted up some vines and discovered about 20 large ready to pick Brandy-wines’ just begging to be picked

2011 Cortland Apple crop (Royal Court strain).  I picked the last three bushel of these this morning.  We’re getting $1.50 a pound for them, but if you buy a whole bushel, I’ll sell them to you for $40.00.  Just 2 of these will be enough to make a pie

2011 plum crop.  I planted the plums just for fun. 

Broom Corn.   The broom corn is also just a novelty crop  I planted.  In the pioneer days, they really did make brooms out of these.

2011 apples in  the walk in cooler

At this point, I would guess we’re about 75% done picking apples.  Now you know why I feel like I live in the Garden of Eden sometimes.

 

10 reasons why you need to plant an apple orchard.

Hanging scale in our sales area

1.  Photo opportunities.   Our apple orchard constantly changes with the seasons.   There is always something catching my eye and bringing me joy.

Royal Court apple tree in bloom this Spring

2.  It provides the perfect blend of solitude and social interaction.  I love my peace and quiet.  There is nothing more nurturing for me than spending a Saturday morning alone, picking apples.  At the same time, I do love meeting and bantering with the public on occassion, and when the mood strikes, I will load up the pick up and head to our local farmers market.

Hawking apples at the farmers market last season

3.  Supplemental income.   Sure there is some work involved in tending an orchard, but not nearly as much as you might suspect.  One Semi dwarf tree  will cost you  $20 to $25.00 and once it’s mature, it can produce between 2 to 4 bushel of apples a year. = 80 to 160 pounds of fruit @ $1.50 a pound that’s $120 to $240 gross, from one tree…per year..not bad for some additional pocket change if you ask me

4.  mental stimulation.    While the basics of tending an apple orchard are pretty easy to grasp, there is always something new to learn.   Did you know there are over 750 different varieties of apples in the United States alone, and over 2000 varieties world wide?

5.  Keeps you physically active. “ Keep those muscles moving”  my grandpa used to say.  Between the pruning in the early spring, to the picking in the fall,  having an orchard provides me with lots of  opportunities  to be physically active outside, all the while,I’m getting paid  and enjoying some fresh air.  As I  get older  I will probably do more of that “you pick” marketing, but for now, I can still climb and honestly, I love picking apples.  Last Saturday, I picked about 1200 pounds of apples in about 6 hours.

6.  Provides me with lots of opportunities to bless others.  I’m not going to brag and tell you how this works itself out except to say, I try to sell mostly our #1 apples, which means, what to do with the seconds?    The opportunities  to give are all around.

7.  Get to enjoy some varieties of fruit that are hard to come by normally – plus if you can find them, you’ll pay through the nose.  Sure we have Honey crisp, was told last year they were charging up to $5.00 a pound for those little rascals.   So far this year, I’ve picked 11 crates of them and probably have at least another 8.  My personal favorite is called the Ginger Gold:

Ginger Gold.

It is every bit as crispy as the Honey crisp and sweet.   Last year we had 32 crates of these little jewels.

8.  Fresh apple cider.    You haven’t lived until you’ve had fresh apple cider pressed from your own apples.   It’s got a texture and taste you’ll never , ever find in a store -ever.  If you come to visit, and the apples are in season, you can help me press out a batch.

9.  You’ll  give the bees something to talk about.  Ever hear of the “waggle dance”?

10. Provides me with lots  of spiritual insight.

Life is full of mystery.    I believe God has hidden the answers to some of our questions about life in the apple orchard.

Pruning and suffering.  I hate it when people try to slap pat answers onto my life when I’m in the middle of something hard.  It makes me angry.  So I will not disrespect you and do that now.  Sometimes it feels like I’m getting “pruned”  and when it does, I barely have enough energy to survive, let alone  do more.

Fruitfulness (ever see an apple tree grunt?    Me neither.

Seasons.   Apple trees don’t produce fruit 12 months out of the year.  In fact, they need large blocks of “down time”  in the winter..to get ready for the next season.  They literally need that time, which is why apple trees don’t do well in warmer climates.

Variety.  Already mentioned this one, but it bears repeating.    Apple trees vary widely and differently in the type of fruit they produce.  I think people are created much more varied than culture tries to tell us.   I found an apple tree on an abandoned farmstead a few years ago like nothing I’d ever seen before.  Some heirloom variety I’m sure.  It looked and tasted just like it was designed to taste.  Definitely not some domesticated boring apple.  So why do you and I sometimes think we have to look like everybody else?   Nothing more beautiful than someone being 100% alive just the way they were designed:

Heirloom variety I found at an abandoned orchard near here

As always, thanks for reading my stuff DM

The Walk- in Cooler story

We  were sitting around  kitchen table today for Father’s day   reminiscing with John and Kathy

The walk in cooler story came up.

It happened last September….

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Last Fall  my wife and I  took the time  to go on another mighty adventure.

We traveled East to  visit friends, drink lots of coffee  and go white water rafting.

I’m not a swimmer so the whole idea of going white water rafting gave me  a rush every time I thought about it.

The day of the rafting trip  I was outfitted with a  super  tight life-preserver.

Supposedly it was designed to keep an adult male  from drowning, but if your boat capsizes in the middle of a #5 rapid, and you get your foot wedged under a rock, then your still gonna die.

That’s me on the left in a #4 rapid

Well, unbeknownst to me  son John was having his own adventure back at home….

We were in the middle of selling apples when we took off on our trip and John was in charge of the apple stand.

Before work that morning   he ran out to the walk in cooler to grab a couple of bags of apples.

We keep the cooler set  at a constant 38 degrees.

John was in a hurry so he ran into the cooler in just a pair of shorts…no shoes, no shirt.The door on the cooler does not have a latch.

I keep it locked with a board on the outside

Well, when  John went into the cooler,  the door swung shut behind him and somehow  locked.

That was a problem for several reasons..

A.  there was no handle on the inside.

B. his cell phone did not have reception in the cooler.

C.  There was nobody else at home, and no one would miss John for at least  a day.

John told us he had visions of us coming home to find his frozen carcass amidst the apple crates.

We asked him if he panicked?

No…he said.  He knew it wouldn’t do any good to yell, cause there was nobody around to hear him.

He said he must have stood there 5 minutes trying to figure out what to do. He finally realized ff he had to, he could  shove the air conditioner back out of the wall, but that was his last resort and would have did several hundred dollars of damage.

Finally, he said, he noticed a little hole  the face of the door., he stuck his finger in the opening, twirled a little shaft  and out swung the door!

 

picture of John boxing up the Cortlands

How about you?

What’s the biggest pickle you’ve ever found yourself in and how did it work out?

The Food Routines Of My life

 The urge to  lay up locally  grown food  has gripped me like a mad squirrel this Fall.

  Dehydrating heirloom  tomatoes…

 blanching fresh green beans:

(those are little potatoes from our garden and onions from the farmers market  I mixed with the beans )

And picking apples….

 bushels and bushels of apples

2010 basket of Cortland

picture of our son helping  pick the Cortland

Ever heard of the term Locavore?   

Me neither…until this year.

 (be sure to check out that link/ lots of great information)

Well, I”m a new convert 

      Quoting now…

“ Locavores  are people who pay attention to where their food comes from and commit to eating local food as much as possible. The great thing about eating local is that it’s not an all-or-nothing venture. Any small step you take helps the environment, protects your family’s health and supports small farmers in your area.”
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I need to back up just a little….

This past March, I realized I was the heaviest I’ve ever been.  I don’t really take too much stock in  those ideal body weight charts.   At my height, if I were to  follow their recommendations, I would look like a stick man. 

   Having said that,  I knew I needed to lose about 35 pounds to get down to what I consider my ideal weight.     I talked with my baby sister who is an RN, and  has managed to stay  fit for several years and is not obsessive about it.  The last thing I wanted to do was go on some fad diet that lasted for a spell, then  wind up fatter than before once the motivation wore off. 

That sort of thing happens all-the-time.

 I was looking for a routine that was long-term and simple.   One that  didn’t have me counting calories, buying expensive foods or taking supplements.   

Well,  I found what I was looking for.

 I am not kidding.  It is so simple a 6 yr old can do it and it works.

  You don’t hear a lot about it because 

A….  it cuts out the middle man who wants to sell you “something”

and B….It’s so simple, you’re tempted to think  you’ve missed something. 

  Why  isn’t everybody doing it????? 

My thought exactly

Here in layman’s terms  are two new routines we’ve been doing with food that has enabled me to keep shedding weight after I lost  the first 10 pounds:
 Suggestion#1 

Cut out  95% of the junk food out of my diet.- biggest help with this was  to  go through our  cupboards and remove the temptations…

    (Like my sister told me,” You don’t have to be anal about it..when we  get together and mom offers you a piece of pecan pie- you don’t have to be rude..eat it. )

Suggestion # 2 

The less processed  the better it is. 

The closer it looks to how God made it when you eat it the better.  This is where becoming a Locavore comes into play as well.

For example,  instead of eating delicious crunchy potato chips for break, I’ve switched to eating english walnuts…right out of the shell.  

Our bodies  crave   fat.  

 Certain foods will satisfy that craving while others don’t. 

 I could eat a whole bag of carrots, still feel hungry, still crave  fat, and say the heck with it, or  eat a small handful of walnuts  that  calms the beast.

Stay away as much as possible from white sugar and white breads.   Those food types  are highly addictive, and  create within us  the craving to eat more of the same.  And sugar morphs   into the fat I’m   trying to shed.

 final story.

     I did a  remodel job for young family recently.   Both of them work like dogs. Later that day, I saw the wife walking  3 miles from home.    She told me she does this just about every day, walks 5 miles  but  is not able to lose  the weight.  She just couldn’t understand it.     The last thing I was going to do was talk to her about loosing weight, but since this is my blog and nobody is forcing you to read this I’m going to tell you what I wished I could have told her…. I know she loves to bake.    Baking for her family is one of the ways she expresses her love …and I am certainly not going to diss that.    But it is a two-pronged effort..physical activity and what we eat.  Until you and I are willing to look @ the foods we eat without getting all defensive we probably won’t experience any significant  changes, unless you get a tape worm   I hear they keep the pounds off.

What I  eat and how much I weigh  is such a personal topic.  It ranks right up there with how I spend my money, sex, and politics.

  I’d love to hear your thoughts….

Thin Places

  “Doug, I was wondering if you had any more apples that needed picking….I really enjoyed doing that last weekend, it was so relaxing.”    Message on the answering machine from our friend Marilyn

     Later when Marilyn did stop out, she told me she felt so relaxed after an hour in the orchard picking apples, it was “better than going to a therapist” to which I replied..”I think we should call it “tree therapy…that will be $20.00 please “

 :-)

 Then I read this in the local paper last night:

   “Whenever I’m feeling sorry about losing Dan, I come out here, and it’s gone, just like that.  There’s something about the healing power of working in gardens.” 

      Celtic believers have long maintained  the veil between us and God is thinner in a garden.

    (I’d like to  add, in an orchard)   They called those places and experiences  ”Thin places”

  “In simple terms a ‘thin place’ is a place where the veil between this world and the next  is thin….

      I (DM) promise not to get all new-age on you, but I can’t tell you the number of times someone has commented when they’ve visited our place, they’ve experienced a profound sense of peace and tranquility, and on occasion  had their  spiritual batteries recharged.

     It happens to me    all      the      time.

     My grandpa Conley  used to say, he felt closer to God when he was fishing than going to church which was why he did the former.   At the time, I thought, yea, right, that’s just an excuse Grandpa, but now, 30 years later,  I would have to say he was probably being honest and not just making a lame excuse.

    Here are a few pictures I’ve taken in our East Orchard:

Early morning in the East Orchard

Mist in the Orchard

  Pruning

     Pruning is the art of trimming an apple tree to keep it healthy and fruitful.   I regularly find myself thinking about the spiritual implications in my own personal life. 

     If you don’t prune an apple tree (and I’ve intentionally let a couple of them go without  just to see what would happen)…the fruit is small…lots of little apples that aren’t worth that much.

     You also prune diseased or dead branches  to keep them from spreading to the rest of the tree….sort of like having certain relationships/ or activities a person might be involved in that are not good for them.

     Fruitfulness

This is not original with me, but if you’re someone who thinks about having a fruitful life…think long and hard about the fruitfulness of an apple tree.  Have you ever seen an apple tree grunting? 

Nope, me neither

They just quietly stay connected to their root system drawing nourishment from the ground, combined with  sunshine and  rain..and wha-la…in it’s season, it produces a crop of fruit.

    All  apple trees don’t produce the same type of fruit either.  Did you know there are over 2000 varieties of apple trees world-wide? 

  So why do we think our fruit need to all look the same?

    Harvest

  The biggest rush I get however, is harvest time.  I get a tiny little jolt of joy every time I remove an apple from the tree branch.   Some of you will probably think I’m crazy, but sometimes I am so overwhelmed  by the sheer volume of apples on a branch I’ve said “Thank you” to the tree as I’ve picked.   *(probably got that from watching movies where the native americans would say something over the buffalo they’ve just killed):-)

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continuing 1 hr later….

    I just came in from digging a couple of hills of new potatoes to make for breakfast for our B and B guests…noticed the 2nd crop of green beans need picking today.  This reminds me of another mystery I’ve thought about as I’ve worked outside in the garden and orchard. 

 A Seed

       One seed becomes a plant,  not over night mind you, but over the course of several weeks.  When I plant the seed, I don’t go back and dig it up to see if it’s growing.  nope,  I might water it, pull some weeds, etc. but leave the original seed alone. similar to  life…I “plant” seeds of kindness and love, then often times/ not always that seed takes root and begins to germinate, and something beautiful begins to form.

    Well, it’s about time for coffee.   Wife is probably wondering where in the heck I am. 

Honor System

 

We sell apples  on the honor system.  It’s not our only method, but it’s my favorite.

   When I mentioned this on Facebook last weekend, one of my friends said the only time she’d ever seen  anything like that was  in France….she could buy goat cheese from a local farmer on the honor system. 

      Last weekend we did over $200.00 business at our roadside stand with nobody manning the cash register   but a chicken. 

You don’t believe me?  Here’s his picture:

     When I told two of our neighbors (and a few others) what I had in mind, they all looked at me like I was crazy.

         “Aren’t you afraid someone is going to steal your apples, or take your money?

      “No, I replied.  I’m not…and what if someone makes off with $20.00 or, God forbid a cooler with apples in it, then so what?  If they need it that bad, then let them have it….”

“Well you’re at least going to put a lock on the money-box right?

“Nope”

Cause here’s the deal,  sure there are some “bad apples”  out there, but I’m convinced the majority of people are not

       I even have some evidence to the contrary.

     My brother, sold asparagus last year, doing basically the same thing on a smaller scale .   He had a cooler with asparagus in it, and a coffee can inside…He told me that more often than not, there was actually more money in the pot @ the end of the day than there should have been…

And then today, someone told my wife @ her  workshop, she’d heard Panera’s Bread was doing something very similar in one of their stores . …and they are thinking about expanding it to other areas.

   I’m a contractor and experience this level of trust all the time .  Just this Summer, someone asked me to oversee the construction of their 4500 sq ft addition on his house.  Here’s what he told me:

     “Doug, I’m busy farming  and to be honest, I don’t know that much about construction. What I would like you to do, is take the ball and run with it.  I trust you.   that’s how I’d like this project to go.”

     Now, let me ask you a question .  When someone entrusts you with that much responsibility and thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money,  are you  going to take advantage of that? 

     Heck no!    that is the ultimate compliment.

       Most of us would do everything in our  power to live up to that trust.

      I look @ this self-serve apple stand in the same way.  I’m offering  fresh, beautiful locally grown  Iowa apples at wholesale cost. 

      I think most people love to be treated that way.

     Here’s a few apple pictures to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

Picture of our 2009 Gala’s

Picture of our Ginger Gold’s

Picture of our Honeycrisp’s

 Ever seen the movie Pay It Forward?

    This is one small way for me to light my candle and change the world.

     Have a great day… 

       and how many apples did you say you wanted ?

Applejam 2009

        Kids  running up and down  rows of  Red Delicious, Honeycrisp,  and Ginger Gold’s  playing hide and seek.    Branches laden  with red and yellow fruit.   In the middle of the  orchard  a small wooden stage for musicians, story tellers and who know what…. and  a long table filled with  pies, maidrites,the smell of  black coffee and apple cider in the September air.

      That  is what applejam looked like in my mind even before I drove the first nail , or picked up the phone in 2002  to find some musicians -Flash forward to September 12th 2009.  We just wrapped up our 11th Applejam.

     The Bible talks about us making plans but then the Lord directing our steps.  That is a great word picture for what has happened with Applejam.  If you’re reading this and don’t believe, I understand,  I really do.  I spent the first twentysome years of my life thinking the same thing.  But when God decides to reel you in, you’ll know it. 

       After each Applejam my wife and I would critique everything- what worked, what didn’t, what would make things run more smoothly?   In 2003 it rained, we still had 40 people show up, so on a lark we moved everything into the basement of our 100 yr old red barn- no lights, no electricity, listening to a 3 piece Mennonite group while it drizzled outside.  (We still had fun)    After that, we decided to set up in the barn….just in case.   I  wired the barn with enough circuits to support a 5 piece band.   (Remember U2 is my favorite band…you just never know)

      As a result of Applejam we’ve hosted musicians from literally all over the world.  We  have a small bed and breakfast that we  see as a watering hole for traveling musicians.  We’ve even been known to barter on occassion- talk to me about  singing  for your meal and a place to lay your head.  Did you know  there is a subculture of  musicians traveling the country?

     Here is a pictorial highlight of Applejam 2009:

Jesse resident artist

   Tom and  Pam.  Tom played a Neil Young cover that sounded just like the original.  Someone told me this was the first time Tom had performed in public for at least 10 years…what a treat.

Some of the crowd

Kathy, Beka and Angie surprising their Papa

Addy and friend dancing to Fran Snyder

Sam, Kailee ,and Patrick-  on short notice (30 minutes)  they put something together-  all I can say is Wow

Fran (on the right) drove over an hour by herself and her two little ones to perform- sang some original songs.  I asked her if she would come back and play at another one of our events- she was delightful.

This young couple (and their son)   worked tirelessly behind the scene- They spent an extended weekend with us.  I think we all made lots of memories

Here is “Lena” my dad’s first cousin doing a comedy routine

Fran Snyder- He  was our headliner this year, came all the way from Kansas.  Great sound and a lot of fun.

 

View of the barn after dark…with  music  and light flowing through  the cracks.

Last Three Months In Pictures

    If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then this post will give me a chance to catch up with some of you    The past 3 months have been some of the busiest  in years. 

      I know how to build “margin” in my life, and it’s slim….Ready?  Here goes…

We played host to a family reunion in July.  Wife’s siblings (she’s one of 7) were all back in town to connect.  I love my wife’s family.   They’re not perfect but they really work at staying involved in each others lives. They are scattered all over the United States.  I took one of my nephews to work one day:

Nephew bonding with Uncle Doug, pouring cement

Late July we hosted concert # 3  in the 2009 Bear River Concert series.  Here’s a picture of  Jesse Martin, Gayla Drake Paul and myself after the show

In 1999 I stayed several days with a family in California while attending a conference.  We’ve kept in touch ever since.  Catherine and her son Jonathan came for a visit. She was originally from the Midwest, came back for a school reunion, wanted Jonathan to connect with some of his roots.  This is a picture of all of us one Sunday morning

Here’s Jonathan seeing what potatoes look like fresh from the garden

Here’s Jonathan petting one of the hens.  I think it’s Joy

In early August, I got a call from someone saying “Let’s do it”  We’d been talking about building him a new 26,000 sq ft warehouse.  Here’s a picture of the first day digging footings.  Once we broke ground, this project  has been a priority .

We had 11 inches of rain the first 2 weeks of this job, our ditches had to be repeatedly pumped out in order to pour the wall and footings.  Here’s one area with 5 feet of water in mud.  Made for some long days

 

  

Dad always said, never ask someone to do something you won’t do yourself (I think many of our government leaders missed that lecture)  Here’s a picture of nephew, son and myself  bucketing mud off the footings.  The mud was too thick for the sump pump so we did it old school.

 

Speaking of school, I started teaching part time in a new community college building.  This is a picture of me in the shop. I teach 2 construction related classes from 12:30 till 2 Monday through Friday.   I love the class, have a great bunch of guys, but it has been brutal in terms of  my schedule.  I go to my first job (building new warehouse) from 7:30 till 11:15 , run home, clean up, head to the school, teach, then go back to the construction site.  In the evenings, most nights I have to work on the lesson plan for the next day.  It has really cut into the time I typically blog.

    In late August, we hosted concert # 4 with GDP 3.  Here’s a view through my video camera. 

Here’s a picture of the cement pump starting to pour the floor in the warehouse.

 

Forgot to mention, we have a bumper crop in the orchard this year, so we’ve started picking apples.  Here’s two little cousins picking apples

 

Here’s a picture of my son with some of the cortlands

   Last week friend and fellow blogger Kristina and family came for a visit.  I think we all made lots of memories.  Here’s a picture of us after we got off the river kayaking. 

Here’s a picture of Kristina in the kitchen cooking w/o meat.  She really is a great cook.   I could get used to having a full time maid

 Applejam (Concert #5) took place over the weekend that Kristina and family was here. They were a great help.  I’m guessing there were at least 120 people here for that.  Here’s a picture of a brother sister duo who were awesome.  He sang a Neil Young song that sounded as good as the original.

Young lady on the right  just finished singing @ Applejam.

     I did get on stage and sing an Alison Kraus song with Kathy, DJ and Lori during Applejam.

I’m going to have to stop there.      Wanted to stay in touch w/ those of you that are regular readers.- later- DM

Grace

   Grace:  Unexpected and undeserved act of kindness

   Gilgal Bible Chapel  had decided to throw a going away party for our family the day before we were to move back to Iowa .   We’d spent five years of our lives, sinking our roots into the people and town of West Milford New Jersey.  We’d moved there so I could attend some classes in marriage and family counseling.  The schooling was only part time, so I’d got a job with Mark one of the men in the church who had a house framing business.  I loved it.

       Thuc (pronounced took) Mark, Vito, Paul, Charlie  and I worked side by side, in some cases 6 days a week…I was going to miss these people.  It was time to move and this was our going away party.  The 28 ft Ryder truck was loaded with all of our  2nd hand furniture, and this was our going away party.There were skits, people  sharing memories of our 5 years with them, food.

      My friend John called me up front to present  me with an envelope- a gift of money-  ”a little something” to help  as we relocated back to the Midwest.    I didn’t open it, thinking it might appear a little tacky-  I just said “Thank you.”

    side note-  This was a small church, mostly blue collar types… on a good Sunday, there would be between  60 and 80 people in attendance.

    Anyway, John, obviously knew what was in the envelope and thought I should open it…”psss, Doug, I really think you should open it now“…….

      I opened the envelop to discover a check for $4,000.00.  I was speechless.  A few years before, I’d seen the church send off another young family, and they’d given them a used car, maybe valued at $1,500- $2,000.00…and they as  a family were going to pastor a church somewhere…me..I was just a carpenter and his family heading back to Iowa.

       This was not the first time I’d experienced an unexpected, take your breath away gift of love….and it wasn’t the last time. 

     It happened again two weeks ago….are you still with me?   Still reading along?

       Long story short, we own a small apple orchard, it’s just now beginning to produce some beautiful apples :

Close up of the 2009  Honeycrisp crop

 

Closeup of the 2009 Gingergold apple crop

      2 years ago, someone gave us a walk in cooler (without the refrigeration unit).   I’ve been looking into what it would take to get the thing up and running…commercial compressors are not cheap.    As I have done some reading on the Internet , I came across a little electronic gizmo that attaches to a household air conditioner…it’s called a Coolbot- or a fraction of the cost.  Well,  about two weeks ago, someone out of the blue sent me an e-mail asking about the orchard, the status of the cooler, etc.  I told them it wasn’t going to happen this year…just didn’t have the money.  They wrote back, offering to help with funding, because they felt a spiritual nudge (prompting) to do so…and the rest is history:

closeup of the cool bot control

picture of the electrician hooking up the sub-panel

    picture of the ginger-gold apples I picked last night and put in the cooler.

A  friend and  electrician offered to help me hook up the wiring to the cooler.  He was able to pick up  175 foot of #6 UF wire for us at a contractor’s supply store..  This is the type of wire you can bury in the ground long term…it is not cheap.  When I asked him for the invoice he simply said, it was on him (as well as his time hooking things up)…so that made two people who felt prompted to help us out with the cooler this Summer…everything was up and running virtually to the day I needed it in order to refrigerate the first variety of apples.

       I as a person, I enjoy extending unexpected  kindness to others…to be on the receiving end is a little trickier     How many times do you hear people say, “I love to give -but have a hard time receiving…”

    To you I would simply say, get over it.   When you allow someone else to extend grace to you, you  bring them joy.

Thoughts, comments, questions?  As always, thanks for reading my stuff.  DM